"I was never an enemy to the King, nor to any man's person upon the earth. I am in the love that fulfills the law which thinks no evil but loves even enemies, and would have the King saved, and come to knowledge of the truth, and be brought into the fear of the Lord, to receive his wisdom from above, by which all things are made and created, that with that wisdom he may order all things to the glory of God."
George Fox
Journal p. 349

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

I have not posted here for a while but I have to award a Lily, tonight, to Mike Huckabee. He is one of the least sensitive and empathetic of all who have stepped in front of the microphone in the past few days in Tampa, and that is saying something. He has shown the depth of his cynical opportunism by giving a speech with the tag line of "We can do better."

We can do better.

Those are words that flip my heart over and back.

That was the title of Robert Kennedy's book in the late 60's, as he emerged from the dark shadows of mourning his brother's death and dared to challenge a war and a way of life/prosperity that was based on war.

It was the title of his book and it was the slogan of his last campaign.

In 1964 I had fire in my eyes, one of Barry's Boys, a supporter of Goldwater and of the very ideas that are sparking and arching in Tampa tonight, at the Republican National Convention, 48 years later.

By April 1968 with the eyes of a Marine Corps Lance Corporal, rather than the eyes of a high school sophomore, streaming tears for that guy who had earned the chops to quell a race riot in Indianapolis. He stood on the back of a truck on the night--only a few days before his own murder--when Martin Luther King was shot from ambush. No other white guy on the planet could have done that in 1968. I doubt if any could do it today.

I am sure that Mike Huckabee, who had the nerve to steal Bobby's slogan tonight, wouldn't even think to dare to climb up on the back of that truck and have a go at accomplishing what Bobby accomplished that night.

This RFK guy, whose slogan Huckabee stole, was the guy who lost the primary in my home state and went for a run with his dog on the beach in Oregon. Then he, himself was dying on that hotel kitchen floor--after having said, moments before, having won the California primary, "Now, it's on to Chicago."

He was going to take on HHH and his own party establishment. He was going to get us out of Vietnam, and he was going to ...

He was going to ...

And then he wasn't going to.

So, Mike Huckabee, you will never be buried beneath an eternal flame. You will never be able to stand on the back of that truck and be heeded, you cannot quell the rage--you can only stir it up as you tried to do tonight. You will never know what Bobby and his big brother learned in Appalachia, what they learned by staring down Nikita Khrushchevand George Wallace.

But you can steal his slogan.

So go ahead, Mr. Huckabee. Take his slogan. Squeeze whatever juice you can out of it for your hateful and divisive cause.

But you will never get his gravity or his integrity. And your name will be forgotten long before his even needs a buffing. Because, Mr. Huckabee, you can try to talk his talk but you can never, never, never, never, never walk his walk.

You can never had what he had...but you can have a Lily because, Mr. Huckabee, because you epitomize and personify the power of Lily Tomlin's simple truth--"No matter how cynical I get, it's hard to keep up."

What is this blog about?

Politics and spirituality don't mix...but they meet. Here I look at political events as they appear by my Light and how the rejection of the testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends--Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community and Equality--is the sand upon which our political house is built.

By the way--religion is far less likely to harm civil politics as civil politics is likely to degrade religion. How do you think that flag got stuck up in the corner of all those churches?

Lets just keep the two as separate as we can--so we don't start hanging one another in the town square.

What's all this stuff about Lily?

Those who know me are aware that I am the most cynical person one can ever meet. Anyone looking for the worst of motives from human beings, for the bottom-of-the-barrel analysis of any situation only need talk to me to get it.

Lily Tomlin once said something along the lines of "No matter how cynical I get, it's hard to keep up."

When I see someone in politics doing something that sets a new standard of hypocrisy or blazes new trails into the territory of a lack of integrity, I will write a little blurb and award them a "Lily"--my own personal little prize for their achievement.

And by the way, the fact that I am cynical does not make me pessimistic. On the contrary, I am the most optimistic person you will ever meet. One of the sources of my optimism is that I am so rarely wrong about my cynical takes that I am confident that the ground for my cynicism points the way to the solution to the problem.

The situation can be fixed, in other words. Find the way and you will have found God, for it is the sacred, and not the profane, that is in the details of reconciliation.

About Me

I am a convinced Beanite Friend, a member of Bridge City Friends Meeting, Willamette Quarterly Meeting and North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.
Notwithstanding the doubts of some who claim the name, I am a Christian who does a Buddhist practice and believes that God talks to everyone, all the time.
I have worked in the judicial branch of government, as well as being a trial lawyer, a public school teacher (counselor and coach), a kite merchant, and a Marine Corp Sergeant.
I am currently working as a consultant to public and private agencies on issues of child welfare, juvenile justice, and substance abuse treatment courts.